Northampton tree canopy change 2011-2021

Author

Kent Johnson

Introduction

This report uses data from the National Land Coverage Database (NLCD) to summarize tree canopy changes in Northampton, Mass. from 2001 to 2021.

NLCD data was obtained from the Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics Consortium. An interactive viewer for the underlying data is available here.

The NLCD provides data on tree canopy coverage at 30 meter resolution. The percent of canopy coverage is reported for each 30 meter square, with data available for each year from 2011 to 2021.

Tree canopy in Northampton

Overall tree canopy coverage in Northampton was approximately 57% for the entire period 2011-2021.

Canopy coverage increased slightly from 57.2% in 2011 to a high of 57.7% in 2013, then decreased to a low of 56.6% in 2021, a decline of just over 1%.

Canopy coverage declined by 0.6% from 2011 to 2021, a loss of 133 acres.

This chart shows tree canopy coverage for the City as whole.

This table shows the canopy percent and the change in percent and acres for the entire city.

Change in tree canopy coverage in Northampton, 2011-2021
		Coverage
	Total area (acres)	2011		2021		Change
	Total area (acres)	Acres	Percent	Acres	Percent	Percent	Acres
Northampton	22,881	13,086	57.2%	12,953	56.6%	−0.6%	-132.9
Data: Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics Consortium \| Analysis: Kent S Johnson

Tree canopy in city centers

This chart shows the tree canopy coverage within the three city centers of Northampton.

Leeds center has the greatest amount of coverage, over 40%. Florence center has about 35% coverage while Northampton is about 20%.

The map at the end of this report shows the extents of the three city centers.

The next chart shows the change in percent tree canopy coverage in city centers since the 2011 baseline.

Leeds is the only city center with increased canopy coverage from 2011 to 2021. Coverage has decreased by almost 2% in Northampton and Florence.

This table shows the canopy coverage in 2011 and 2021 in the three city centers and the change in percent and acres.

Change in tree canopy coverage in city centers, 2011-2021
		Coverage
City center	Total area (acres)	2011		2021		Change
City center	Total area (acres)	Acres	Percent	Acres	Percent	Percent	Acres
Leeds	116	46.9	40.3%	48.5	41.6%	1.3%	1.6
Florence	145	51.1	35.1%	48.4	33.3%	−1.9%	-2.7
Northampton	134	28.0	21.0%	25.6	19.1%	−1.8%	-2.4
Data: Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics Consortium \| Analysis: Kent S Johnson

Tree canopy by zoning category

This chart show the tree canopy percent within five zoning categories aggregated from the City zoning. Unsurprisingly, there is considerable difference in tree canopy coverage across the different zoning categories.

The next chart shows the change in percent tree canopy since the 2011 baseline, by zoning category.

The canopy increase from 2011 to 2013 is mostly in the Rural and Suburban/Water supply zones. All zones have seen a decrease in canopy since 2013. The decrease is largest in the Business/industrial and Central business zones.

This table shows the canopy coverage in 2011 and 2021 by zone.

Change in tree canopy coverage by zoning category, 2011-2021
		Coverage
Zoning class	Total area (acres)	2011		2021		Change
Zoning class	Total area (acres)	Acres	Percent	Acres	Percent	Percent	Acres
Suburban/Water supply	6,434	4,251	66.1%	4,208	65.4%	−0.7%	-42.3
Rural	12,680	7,328	57.8%	7,291	57.5%	−0.3%	-37.7
Urban	2,602	1,187	45.6%	1,155	44.4%	−1.2%	-32.0
Business/industrial	919	287	31.3%	272	29.6%	−1.7%	-15.9
Central business	243	31.8	13.1%	26.8	11.0%	−2.1%	-5.0
Data: Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics Consortium \| Analysis: Kent S Johnson

Tree canopy by ward and precinct

This chart show the tree canopy percent within each voting ward and precinct.

The next chart shows the change in percent tree canopy since the 2011 baseline, by ward and precinct.

This table shows the canopy coverage in 2011 and 2021 by ward and precinct.

Change in tree canopy coverage by ward and precinct, 2011-2021
		Coverage
Ward and precinct	Total area (acres)	2011		2021		Change
Ward and precinct	Total area (acres)	Acres	Percent	Acres	Percent	Percent	Acres
6A	1,833	1,384	75.5%	1,376	75.0%	−0.5%	-8.8
7B	5,434	3,979	73.2%	3,951	72.7%	−0.5%	-27.5
6B	3,317	2,153	64.9%	2,169	65.4%	0.5%	15.3
7A	2,354	1,554	66.0%	1,500	63.8%	−2.3%	-53.3
1A	1,909	1,145	60.0%	1,121	58.7%	−1.3%	-24.6
5B	928	469	50.5%	463	49.9%	−0.6%	-5.6
5A	352	171	48.6%	168	47.8%	−0.8%	-2.8
4B	2,717	1,237	45.5%	1,232	45.4%	−0.2%	-5.0
2A	175	78.6	45.0%	74.8	42.9%	−2.2%	-3.8
1B	430	192	44.8%	184	42.7%	−2.1%	-8.9
2B	528	228	43.1%	216	41.0%	−2.1%	-11.1
3B	296	76.5	25.9%	70.7	23.9%	−2.0%	-5.8
4A	134	29.9	22.2%	27.5	20.5%	−1.8%	-2.4
3A	2,471	387	15.6%	398	16.1%	0.5%	11.4
Data: Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics Consortium \| Analysis: Kent S Johnson

Canopy change map

This map shows the change in tree canopy percent from 2011 to 2021. Overlays show Northampton city centers, zoning categories as aggregated for this report, and wards and precincts.

Low canopy map

This map shows areas of the city with less than 20% tree canopy in 2021 in pink. Overlays show Northampton city centers, zoning categories as aggregated for this report, and wards and precincts.